PUDR Exposes Upper Caste Hyprocrisies

New Delhi: The People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) In a report on the reservation issue has said that the “poignant futility of self-Immolations that so many of our young people attempted is a bitter commentary” on Institutions such as bureaucracy, political parties, media and academia. In the 33-page report entitled “Disputed Passages: A Report of Law, Reservations and Agitations”, released at a press conference on Dec.24 PUDR said: The report said “high-profile media coverage has obscured the wider social composition of the (anti-Mandal) agitation In Delhi. It ranged from the elite students of the university to assorted hoodlums and supporters of the BJP and the Congress(I)”. Mandal became the baby of one of the Janata Dal factions. The BJP, which promised its implementation in its manifesto let its student and youth wings participate in the agitation while the Congress (I) president, Rajiv Gandhi, “opposed the Mandal Commission north of the Vindhyas, supported it south of the Vindhyas and at a meeting In Nagpur at the height of the agitation, kept silent about it”. As far as academia was concerned, it “let biases overtake social concerns … “. “A large number of Delhi University teachers who during their strikes, thrice in the last eight years opposed the introduction of the element of ‘merit’ In their promotion scheme, suddenly became champions of the merit principle.” (The Hindu Dec.25).